Tennis Betting Tips: Shelton to sail into second round of Paris Masters

The first round of the 2024 Paris Masters began on Monday, October 28, with the likes of Jordan Thompson, Ugo Humbert and Tommy Paul all in action.

Up on Tuesday are Jack Draper, Ben Shelton and Lorenzo Musetti, all of whom feature in my tennis betting tips, which you can check out below.

Tennis Odds

Set Betting - Jack Draper (GBR) to beat Jiri Lehecka (CZE) 2-1 @ 11/4

The only previous meeting between Jack Draper and Jiri Lehecka took place on hardcourt earlier this year, albeit outdoors, with the Czech winning 2-1 in the Adelaide International.

Since then, however, Draper has been on the rise, the highlight of his calendar year being his run to the US Open semi-finals, where he lost in straight sets to world No.1 and eventual winner Jannik Sinner.

The Englishman also won his most recent event, the Vienna Open, in Austria earlier this month, and that was played on indoor hardcourts, as is the ongoing Paris Masters, where he will open up on Tuesday.

Lehecka reached an indoor hardcourt final of his own earlier this month when finishing runner-up to Roberto Bautista-Agut in the European Open in Antwerp, Belgium.

It should be a competitive contest between Draper and Lehecka on Tuesday, and buoyed by his success over the world No.15 in January, Lehecka will back himself to at least win a set in Paris.

However, I'm not sure the 22-year-old will be able to repeat the feat by winning the match, with Draper a tempting 11/4 to win in three sets here.

Set Betting - Ben Shelton (USA) to beat Corentin Moutet (FRA) 2-0 @ 8/11 

Ben Shelton and Corentin Moutet have never met in competitive action before but, 51 places higher in the ATP rankings, the former comes into their Paris Masters match as the clear favourite.

World No.19 Shelton has only lost at the first hurdle once in his last eight tournaments, and that was to Carlos Alcaraz in the Laver Cup last month, when falling to defeat doesn't spell the end of a player's participation (he faced Daniil Medvedev the following day and won 2-1).

The last time Shelton exited in the first round of a single's competition was in July's Atlanta Open when the 22-year-old lost 2-0 to Chinese teenager Juncheng Shang. Even Shang, ranked 51st, is 19 places higher than Shelton's next opponent, Moutet, who has lost his last four completed matches on hard court.

The Frenchman lost 2-0 to Zizou Bergs in the China Open in Beijing last month before going down 2-1 in the Shanghai Masters earlier in October. The second half of this month, meanwhile, saw Moutet lose 2-0 to Jacob Fearnley in the Stockholm Open and 2-1 to countryman Quentin Halys in the Vienna Open.

Moutet does have two hardcourt wins on his record in the past few days, but both of his Paris Masters qualifier victories over Jaume Munar and Jakub Mensik saw his two opponents retire after the first set.

Seven of Shelton's last eight wins have finished in a 2-0 scoreline and I think the American will make it eight in nine on Tuesday when he takes on Moutet in the French capital.

Match Betting - Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) to beat Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) @ 8/15

Not huge odds on this one, but high enough that it's still worth backing, in my opinion.

World No.16 Lorenzo Musetti takes on Jan-Lennard Struff in the Paris Masters, with the Italian looking to bounce back after his straight-sets defeat to Draper in the semi-finals of the Vienna Open last week.

It's not been a spectacular few months on hardcourts for the 22-year-old, who lost his opening match of the Shanghai Masters to David Goffin, barely a week after going down 2-0 to Yunchaokete Bu in his second China Open contest in Beijing.

As a result, I'm not prepared to stick my neck out and back Musetti to win in straight sets on Tuesday. He should certainly be confident of making it through to the next round, however, up against Struff, who is ranked 26 places lower in the world.

Struff has lost his last three completed matches, all on hardcourts, but he did take a set - or two - in all three defeats. The German went down 2-1 to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Cincinnati Open last month before also bowing out in his first contest at the US Open, losing 3-2 to Laslo Djere. The 34-year-old then made it a hat-trick of first-round defeats by losing 2-1 to Alex De Minaur in the Vienna Open last week.

Musetti and Struff have only faced off once before in competitive action, at the Sofia Open in Bulgaria in September 2022, when the Italian won 2-0.

That was a couple of years ago, mind, so I'm not paying too much attention to that result.

Instead, let's play things safer and just go for Musetti to win Tuesday's match at 8/15.

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Tennis Betting Tips from Betfred Insights.